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We are very pleased to announce that Christopher M. Gomez, MD, PhD, has been appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology.
You may wish to read the attached message from Dr. Gomez.
Dr. Gomez joins us from the University of Minnesota where he was Professor, Director of the Laboratory of Ion Channel Disorders and Neurodegeneration, and Associate Head for Research Affairs in the Department of Neurology.
Dr. Gomez's research program concentrates on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease, with a particular focus on the means by which genetic mutations in ion channels or other essential proteins lead to dominantly inherited neurodegenerative diseases. His laboratory pursues two primary project avenues, one on the genetics and pathogenesis of the slow- channel syndrome, a model disease of excitatory synaptic degeneration, the other representing a similar focus on genetically-determined spinocerebellar ataxias and the correlations between ataxia genotype and neurological phenotype. He established and directs the University of Minnesota Ataxia Clinic, a nationally recognized specialty clinic for patients with these rare degenerative diseases. He is a founding member of the Cooperative Ataxia Group, a national consortium of ataxia specialists that has just launched the first rating scale and natural history studies for Friedreich's Ataxia. His research has resulted in over 50 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.
Dr. Gomez's appointment brings him back to a place he knows well, having earned his A.B. in Biology from the College in 1977 followed by a Ph.D. from the Committee on Immunology (Dr. David Richman's lab in Neurology) in 1981 and his M.D. from the Pritzker School of Medicine in 1983. He then completed an internship at Michael Reese Hospital and residency in our Department of Neurology. In 1987 he was appointed a Clinical Instructor in the Ataxia Clinic of UCLA's Department of Neurology and simultaneously began a postdoctoral fellowship in Lee Hood's lab at Caltech. In 1990 he joined the Department of Neurology at Minnesota as an Assistant Professor followed by promotion to Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor in 2002.
Dr. Gomez's standing in the field of neurodegenerative disease research is reflected by significant national responsibilities. He has been on the Medical and Research Advisory Board of the National Ataxia Foundation since 1991 and currently serves the Foundation as Associate Research Director. He is a Member of the American Academy of Neurology, the Society for Neuroscience, the American Neurological Association, and the American Society of Human Genetics, and he currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Neurology.
Among Dr. Gomez's many honors are election to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago in 1977, the Abram L. Harris Achievement Prize from the College in the same year, the Henry Veits Student Fellowship from the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation in 1978, and Visiting Professorships at the Institute for Neurobiology and Department of Biology at the University of Puerto Rico in 1999 and at the Centre de Recherche de Biochimie Macromoleculaire in Montpellier, France, in 2000.
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